The Rugby gazette and east Tennessee news. (Rugby, Morgan Co., Tenn.) 1884-188?, 1887-01-08
EXTINCT ANIMALS.
The Bones of Enormous Beasts Exhui nod
In Spokane County, w. T.

Tho Bones of Enormous Beasts ExhuIned
In Spokane County, w. T.
W. M. Lee, the well-known. fruit
grower of Tacoma, gives the particu-
lars of a wonderful discovery of bones
of extinct animals in Washington Ter
ritory, which will attract the attention
of the students of natural history and
archaeology all over the world. In a
letter from Spokane Falls, he says:
The face of the whole Territory shows
unmistakable evidence of great vol
,canic upheavals. On my trip through
Spokane County stopped at Latah,
and in conversation with Mr.. Coplen, of
that place, regarding the volcanic
formation of that section, he informed
me that he had examined some large
. bones of great antiquity Accom-
panied by Mr.. Coplen ] went to the
spring where the relics were dug out.
It is located on low strip of springy
prairie. The excavation around the
spring is twelve or fifteen eet deep,
and thirty or forty feet across. The
bones were covered by several dictinct
layers.
The first layer was ancient peat, then
gravel, then volcanic ashes, then layer
OF coarse peat From this spring were
taken no less than nine mammoths, or
elephants, of different sizes, the remains
of a cave bear, and hyenas, extinct birds
and sea turtle Mr.. Coplen kindly pre-
sented me with some specimens of these
relics. The dimensions of some of the
bones of the larger mammoths were
wonderful to look at. The horns were
a sort of tusk, and protruded from the
head. BY dropping the head in the act
of feeding the circle of the horns that
extended below the jaws rested on the
ground, giving support to the head,
which is estimated to have weighed q
ton.
The horns were worn away several
inches deep at the bottom of the turn
or half circle, indicating constant use
by rubbing on the ground or rocks.
One of these horns was ten feet and one
inch long and twenty.four inches in
circumference. 1t weighed 145 pounds.
One of the tusks measured twelve feet
and nine inches in length and twenty
seven inches round. 1t weighed 295
pounds. The jaw weighed sixty-three
pounds. The molar teeth weighed
eighteen pounds each. Some of the
ribs were eight feet long. The pelvic
arch was six feet across, and an ordi-
nary man could walk erect Though
this opening. The huge and antique
monster was eighteen feet and six
inches high, and was estimated to weigh
twenty tons.
Just imagine far back in the misty
by-gones of antiquity, probably be-
fore the appearance of man upon the
earth, that Washington Territory was
the home of these monstrous animals
that roamed over the great prairies,
traversed the Columbia river, and made
the genial chimes of Puget Sound their
haunts in winter. 1t matters not what
the theories may be in regard to these
embedded bones of such huge proper
tons; why so many of them were piled
together in these springy places; what
period or age the animals lived; at
what time the great change took place
which made them disappear from the
continent; whether they first made their
appearance in this part of America and
whether or not it was then tropical
climate.-Taconaa w.t. Daily Ledger.